“Seeing God in everything is the direct route. What does it take? This now!” ~ Byron Katie

Woo-hoo! After a fabulous near-month at home, I’m ready to embark on some new traveling adventures. I leave in a couple hours for Wilmington, North Carolina. If you’re anywhere near, come say “hi!” tomorrow at the Unity Church where I’ll be speaking from 7 to 9. On Sunday, I sail from New York to Bermuda with America’s Top Chefs. Can someone say delicious?

In the meantime, I’ve got lots of friends here in cyberspace who can fill in for me on the blog. Enjoy this post from Cloris Kylie. She even mentions the nocebo effect, the evil twin of the placebo effect which happens to be one of the experiments in the new book.

Take it away, Cloris!

As an avid cyclist, I’ve met most of the riders in town. Some of these athletes ride state-of-the-art bicycles three times lighter than mine. Early on a Sunday morning, I was riding downhill when one of the cyclists with a fancy bike passed me by.

“No coasting!” he yelled.

I scrunched up my face. Coasting? I’m not coasting!

I switched my attention to my motionless legs during this part of the ride. The guy is right. I am coasting, I thought.

I pedaled, and started to gain speed. Now I looked like a real athlete. My ego was satisfied.
But I had stopped enjoying the scenery.

During the rest of the ride, I couldn’t take my attention away from whether I was pedaling or not. The harder I tried not to notice my legs, the more attention I paid to them.

I thought of the countless times somebody mentions a supposed flaw in ourselves that previously wasn’t an issue but becomes an issue once we are aware of it.

I also thought of the “nocebo effect,” a term used to describe what often happens when we’re prescribed a medical drug and read its supposed side effects. We read, “Headache and abdominal pain may occur,” and moments after, our head hurts and our stomach cramps.

It all comes down to our chosen subject of attention.

The power of this knowledge is that we have the choice to align with stimuli that instead of hurting us, helps us manifest the kind of life we desire. Here are some strategies that have worked for me and might work for you, too.

Avoid starting and ending your day by watching the news. You can remain informed about what’s happening in the world, but choose to gather the information at times when it will have less power over your overall outlook on life.

Wake-up time is your opportunity to gather positive momentum to create a joyful day, and bedtime is your chance to feed good-feeling stories to your subconscious mind.

Also, avoid watching news and stories that won’t serve you. Do you really need to know the gory details of the latest murder or car accident?

Raise the energy vibration of those around you. When people bring up what is wrong about the world or about you, either change the topic or ask them what they would feel if the circumstances were the complete opposite. When people visualize a favorable outcome, they are uplifted and less likely to continue focusing on the negative.

If you don’t want to hear bad news, don’t seek them. This means no asking for details when people complain, and avoiding websites that make you conclude your tension headache is sign of a terminal disease.

Use your negative emotions as a gauge. Your feelings will tell you whether you need to switch your attention to something different. When you experience a hint of fear, anger, or sadness, switch to a thought that makes you feel better about yourself or about the situation (even if this good-feeling thought is related to something different.)

Act promptly when you realize you need to switch your point of attention. A negative thought will attract another negative thought, which will attract another negative thought and so on. It’ll be a lot easier to switch thoughts when they haven’t gained momentum.

In my case, feeling anxious about “no coasting” should have alerted me that I needed to remove my attention from how fast I was pedaling. By the time I realized I needed to think of something different, the momentum of the anxiety-producing thought had become too strong to stop it.

Create a habit to focus on what is right about your life. If placing your attention on a flaw magnifies it, focusing on the gifts in your life will make these gifts grow and multiply. As Pam Grout says in the New York Times bestseller E-Squared, “…by changing what you look for, you can radically change what shows up in your world.”

What can you appreciate at this moment? Focus on that. When I wake up, the first words that come out of my mouth are, “Thank you!”

If you choose to make goodness the focus of your attention, the negativity and drama in your life will progressively and surely fade away.

Cloris Kylie is a personal development author, motivational speaker, coach, and radio show host who focuses on the inner power that each of us has to manifest an extraordinary life. A sought-after lecturer and receiver of top communication and leadership awards, Cloris reaches every corner of the world through her blog, online courses, and radio show. Her new book is Magnificent…Married or Not: Reaching Your Highest Self Before, During, and After Divorce, available on Amazon and other online retailers.

“Our thoughts have the power to instantly release positive energy, or to entangle energy.”—Michele Longo-O’Donnell

I’m reading Dr. Joe Dispenza’s book, You are the Placebo. Here’s the fifth sentence: “On a beautiful Southern California day in April, I had the privilege of being run over by an SUV in a Palm Springs triathlon.”

Say what? The privilege of being run over? That day, when he broke six vertebrae, changed his life forever. The work he’s doing now as a speaker, author and researcher would never have happened without the experiment he conducted after doctors told him his one chance of ever walking again was to have a very complicated Harrington rod surgery.

He was 23, just cocky enough to think, “I am going to heal myself. I am going to put all my conscious attention on this intelligence within me. I am going to surrender to this greater, unlimited power and allow it to heal me.”

Doctors, of course, thought he was plum nuts. But nine and a half weeks after the accident, he walked back into his life—without a body cast or surgery. Within ten weeks he was again seeing patients at his chiropractic clinic and training with weights.

No matter what happens in our lives, we have the choice of how we will interpret it. For me, it only makes sense to proclaim “This is the best thing that ever happened to me.” No matter what it is.

Yesterday, a treasured member of one of my power posses told two stories that perfectly illustrate this principle.

She lives on a farm, by herself, and noticed last week there were hundreds of wasps swarming her grill. Sure enough, she opened the grill and found a wasps’ nest as big as a Frisbee. At first, like any sensible person, she panicked and began pacing. But only for a short time. Only long enough to remember this important truth: “I have control over the energy I put forth into the universe and this is not what I want to emit.”

She calmly let go of her wasp dilemma and said to the universe, “Okay, this is your deal. I’m going to trust this will all work out.”

On Friday, she noticed the wasps were no longer circling. Very gingerly, she opened the grill and the Frisbee-sized wasp nest was gone. Disappeared. No longer.

That same week, her car broke down on the side of the highway. Her phone, she noticed, had two percent power left. Once again, she started to panic. But again realized, “I only want to put out clear, trusting energy.”

On a hunch, she pulled down her visor and a card fell out. She’d completely forgotten she had AAA roadside assistance. And with her 2 percent phone power, she called and patiently waited while a very slow-talking operator finally took down her details. Within 10 minutes, a tow truck showed up, delivered her car to a repair shop and took her safely to where she needed to be.

The next day her car was ready and, when she pulled out a card to pay, was told: “No charge. Your car’s still under warranty.”

“Under warranty?” she said. “My car is more than 10 years old.”

Not only that, but the tow truck driver asked her out on a date.

So I ask you? What energy do you put out when things do not appear to be working in your favor? It’s always your choice.

A daughter of a friend of mine is down in Louisiana or Mississippi or one of those southern states making bamboo bicycles. She’s an architect student and well, why not? Anyway, she left her beloved kitten with my friend who, for about three days, couldn’t find the derned thing. She called the kitten, she tried to lure it out with milk, did all the things any totally desperate person would do to find a prized missing pet. One day, while trying to get her mind off the explanation she was going to give to her daughter when she returns home, my friend was sitting on her bed, fiddling with her I-pad, and out of nowhere, the kitten jumps in her lap. The doors and windows were all closed. She has no idea where the missing cat came from.

Another friend misplaced her favorite bracelet on a cruise. She had taken it off while showering and it disappeared. She and her cabin mate both spent considerable time trying to find it. It was nowhere to be found. A couple days later, while on a shore excursion, my friend looks down and voila!, there were three bracelets (she started the day with one) on her arm, one of which was the missing bracelet.

And this last Sneaky Jesus dropped into my inbox this morning from a reader of E-Squared. Here’s what she says:

“After an earlier attempt at applying the exercises in E-squared, I returned to the book to give it a second shot. I’m one of those “totally gets LOA in theory, but is way too analytical and therefore sucks at application” types. But yesterday, I got my miracle.

I was on my second day of the VW Jetta principle. Was looking for Fiats because I really want a cute little Fiat to drive around the city. Saw one on the first day, in a really weird way. But just one. Set my intention to look out for Fiats on my road trip the next day.

Yesterday, I show up at the car rental to pick up a car. The lady at the desk casually asks, “How about a Fiat?” My jaw dropped. Time to stop playing small. I didn’t want to see a Fiat, I wanted to drive a Fiat!!

So, thanks for a great book and sharing your perspective with the world. Good times ahead for us all.”

Jeannie worked a minimum wage job as a clerk at a discount store. She heard this rumor that prosperity was possible to anyone who made it a conscious intention, anyone who took the time to write down what they’d “love to do.” She didn’t really buy it at first, but just in case, she hedged her bets by attending a workshop given by Edwene Gaines, a powerful prosperity teacher who makes the rounds at Unity churches.

She stood up during the workshop and challenged Edwene’s thesis. “This prosperity business is a bunch of bunk,” she said. “How could it possibly work? I barely make minimum wage. How in the world could any of this good stuff happen for me?”

Edwene reminded her of the first principle of prosperity: How is none of your business.

“Your business is ‘What do I want?’ Edwene reminded her and then asked her this question. “Would you be willing to consider the possibility that God has ways of bringing your good to you that you might not have thought of yet?”

Jeannie gulped and said, “Well, yes.”

“Okay,” says Edwene. “Should we get back to the only question that’s really up to you?”

“Well, I’ll tell you what I want,” Jeannie said. “I want to see the world. I want to go to all those wonderful places I’ve only read about and seen on TV. I want to go to the opera in Italy, the casinos in Monte Carlo. I want to see the Pyramids, visit London, Paris and Machu Picchu. I want to travel to Tibet and China. And I want to go first class and ride in limousines and wear beautiful clothes.”

And again, Edwene asked her, “Are you willing to consider the possibility that God knows exactly how to do all that?”

Eighteen months later, Jeannie called Edwene.

“And, boy, was she excited,” Edwene says.

Jeannie proceeded to tell her about waking up one morning and yelling at the walls of her tiny apartment, “I am not a clerk. I don’t know what I am, but I am not a clerk.”

She went in that day, quit her job and decided she’d look for gainful employment elsewhere.

A few days later, while making the job interview rounds, she took a break for coffee at a little diner. She sat down at a booth and noticed a paper opened to the classifieds in the booth next to her. She couldn’t help but be curious about the ad, circled in red ink.

Turns out an elderly woman who had owned three successful businesses had recently retired and wanted to see the world. Although the woman had grown children, none of them could take the time off, so she was looking for someone with whom to travel. She wanted someone who would handle all the details—plan the itinerary, secure the airlines tickets, hire the limos, etc.. The older woman didn’t care where she went. She just wanted to go, to make up for the lost time she’d devoted to her businesses.

“And guess what?” Jeannie says. “We went to the opera in Italy, the casinos in Monte Carlo. We went to Paris and London, Tibet, China and Mexico City. We saw the pyramids in Egypt,” Jeannie says. “And it was just like I asked. She bought me elegant clothes and even loaned me her jewelry.”

They traveled first-class for almost an entire year when the older woman became ill. They returned to the States and, in her will, the older woman left Jeannie a small inheritance.

So, as Edwene would say, “Are you willing to consider the possibility that God might know a few things you haven’t thought of yet?”

A friend of mine raises money for the Citizens Climate Lobby, a non-profit working to address climate change.

I, too, am addressing climate change, but not the big, global kind. The climate change I’m most interested in is the climate within my own energetic field.

Sometimes, I feel like Pig-Pen from the Peanuts cartoon. I don’t typically wear dirty overalls, but an energetic cloud of dirt and dust seems to surround me, blocking the universal flow of good.

Unlike the cloud around Charlie Brown’s friend, mine is largely invisible, but it’s just as effective at keeping love and beneficence at bay. When I feel ornery, when I start noticing all the “problems” in my life, I draw in even more problems.

Like gravity, you can’t really see a person’s energetic cloud, but it works just as effectively. Grumpy thoughts, unhappy attitudes, declarations that “life sucks” keep the world’s goodness locked out of a person’s life experience.

It’s why I attempt to keep my personal climate as pure and positive as possible. It’s why I get up every morning and declare, “Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.” It’s why I meditate and actively look for blessings.

I love you, Pig-Pen, but, as for me, I’m keeping the only climate I have any control of cloud-free and perpetually joyful.

I was thinking about one of my favorite songs this morning and decided it was time to “play it again, Sam!” If you haven’t heard this one lately, it’s worth the time it takes to listen. Scroll down. It’s at the bottom of this post from last September. Enjoy!

As anyone who follows this blog knows, I have a pretty sweet gig as a travel writer. I get paid to jet off to really cool places, to do things I’d probably never get to do on my own.

Last week, I was in Istanbul and the Black Sea region of Turkey. Although I’ll be writing travel articles about my experiences (visiting ancient archaeological sites, tea plantations and remote mountain villages and staying in the same sultan’s palace turned hotel where Madonna and her 25-year-old boy toy stayed during her infamous, flash-the-crowd Istanbul concert), I also experienced a number of metaphysical truths on this fabulous adventure.

First, was my intention to visit Turkey. As you can imagine, I have lots of destinations on my bucket list. Recently, Turkey moved into the top 5. I didn’t obsess about it, just “set it and forget it.” During Ramadan, I was invited to break fast with two Turkish families who live in my hometown. Hmm, I thought. That could be the indication I was getting close like the birds that show up when you’re nearing your destination after a long ocean cruise.

The next metaphysical truth was “Fear is but an illusion.” On Friday, two days before I was scheduled to leave, the State Department issued a travel warning. I pay no attention to such things, but several friends emailed me the alert. “Danger, danger, Will Robinson!!”

But I focused instead on this lesson from the Course in Miracles, “I am in danger nowhere in the world.” And while one of the journalists did back out, I will be forever grateful that I chose to claim safety and ease wherever I go.

The last metaphysical truth that was on display throughout the country of Turkey is “To give and receive are one in Truth.” Turkish families everywhere we went invited us into their homes, fed us the most stupendous meals (Turkish cuisine is beyond spectacular) and honored us as treasured guests. I have never felt more loved, more secure or more sure that people everywhere are infinitely beautiful, kind and filled with love. There is no better way to learn about abundance than to give it away.

The really insane ones, the ones with the 85-degree vertical drops and the seven inversions usually have a camera poised right where the coaster plummets 185 feet.

If you look at the photos these theme parks somehow manage to process and have waiting for you to purchase when you step, wobbly-kneed, off the ride, you’ll notice the teenagers usually have big smiles on their faces with their hands in the air. The adults? They usually look terrified, even though they know, theoretically, they’re perfectly safe.

Life is a lot like those roller coasters. It sometimes looks like we’re in danger, but, as my lesson today in A Course in Miracles reminds us, “The time has come to laugh at such insane ideas. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. No one but yourself affects you.”

So let’s join the teenagers, put our hands in the air and shout with glee, even when the coaster car appears to be heading downhill.

“Words are like X-rays if you use them properly—they’ll go through anything.” — Aldous Huxley

For today’s viewing pleasure, I’m sending out an excerpt from E-Cubed. Enjoy!!!
￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼
￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼￼I have a friend who shall not be named that regularly accuses me of being a pie-in-the-sky Pollyanna. She thinks talking only about the good and the beautiful is denying facts.

But here’s my position. “Facts” are not that interesting. I much prefer discussing possibilities. Sure those studies, those government reports, those doctors’ prognoses declare what she might call irrefutable “facts.” But to me, they’re nothing but a catapult for something better.

I believe the most important faculty we possess is our imagination, and that by aligning it with the field of infinite potentiality, we can create something so much better than “current facts.” Harping on about “current facts” just calls in more of the same. To waste our time on “appearances” is denying the power we have to change things for the better. I would much rather deny “facts” than deny my own ability to imagine something better. My words are the seeds that plant the possibilities.

We can continue to focus on “what is” or “what appears to be,” or we can focus on what we can better imagine. “What is” is simply what we’ve been focusing on. “What could be” is much more interesting. At least to me.

Those “facts” that my friend accuses me of denying are nothing but the harvest of the words of lack and problems we spoke up until now.

“Dumb suffering is the kind of suffering you’re compulsively drawn back to over and over again out of habit. It’s familiar, and thus perversely comfortable. Smart suffering is the kind of pain that surprises you with valuable teachings and inspires you to see the world with new eyes.”—Rob Brezsny

Happy Hump Day. Or that’s what I used to call it back when I was just out of college, working my first job and looking for any excuse for a night out with friends.

Speaking of friends, all you regulars to this blog know that I’ve made a lot of them through the remarkable ethers of the internet. One of these friends, Greg Kuhn, has graced this blog with his wisdom on many an occasion.

I even included an experiment of his in my new book, E-Cubed, that debuts in September. One early adopter of this experiment recently wrote to tell me about a mysterious check that came in for $10,730.58! Out of the blue. You can read about it here.

But in the meantime, here’s another fabulous post from my pal, Greg Kuhn. You’re welcome.

Take it away, Greg:

Whenever you think about your future, all you’re doing is telling yourself a story. It’s either a feel-good story, a feel-bad story, or something in-between. But it’s not real, it’s just a fantasy you’re creating.

You’re telling yourself a bed-time story or writing a movie script. The future is actually no more real than Little Red Riding Hood.

In fact, the future is truly the living embodiment of infinite possibility. Literally. The unformed potential of the quantum field contains the inherent potential to become absolutely anything in your own, unique, individual universe.

Although I heartily discourage spending your energy thinking about the future (or the past), we all do it. We habitually conjure up tales of fear-inducing horror and ecstasy-inducing happiness about our future. And we’re all merely crafting fables when we do it.

And in that regard I want to ask you two questions:

1. Why is it, when you tell yourself a story of a bad future, you’re all too quick to believe it?

2. Why is it, when you try to tell yourself a story of future success and happiness, you’re often quick to poo-poo that as if you’re not allowed to believe it?

After all, in both of those scenarios you’re only imagining a narrative about what will happen in your unknown future of infinite possibilities. In both those scenarios you’re simply writing a fictional novel about your future life.

Is it any wonder that we often ask ourselves, “What’s the worst that can happen?”

I encourage you not to dwell on the future. It’s an illusion – one where you’re projecting the current iteration of “you” into a time-space which will never actually exist. Because when you are occupying that time space, it will be the present moment.

And the present moment is the only thing real in our universe.

Yet, since we all think about the future from time to time, I’m challenging you to try the What’s the Best that Can Happen Experiment by asking yourself, “What’s the best that can happen?” instead.

Who made up the rule that you’re not allowed to ask yourself that question? Try it. In fact, dive in and see what happens.

And, when you hear those old limiting beliefs tell you you’re not allowed to ask “What’s the best that can happen?”, gently tell your subconscious brain, “Greg Kuhn told us it’s okay. In fact, the Law of Attraction Science Guy told us that we’re supposed to try it.”

It’s a fun experiment and one that infuses your game of “Grow a Greater You” with authentic, believable optimism.

Greg Kuhn, the Law of Attraction Science Guy, is the best-selling author of the popular Why Quantum Physicists… book series. His newest book, Why Quantum Physicists Play “Grow a Greater You”, a veritable blueprint for deliberate creators, will be released in July, 2014. His Penny Experiment will also be included in Pam Grout’s new book. Greg can be reached at his website, http://www.whyquantumphysicists.com

“The difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone is how high you raise your foot.” ― Benny Lewis

Heard a funny story over the weekend. As you know, if you’ve seen my travel blog, I have a thing about George Clooney. I like his politics, his sense of fun and you gotta admit, he’s not too bad to look at.

I was listening to a couple TV writers who came to Lawrence for a big arts festival over the weekend. One of them, a writer for Bodies of Evidence, an old homicide drama from the early 90’s, told us that Clooney was considered for the leading role of Lieutenant Ben Carroll, but a CBS exec was pretty clear: “He’s just not leading man material.”

Instead, the part went to Lee Horsley and George, in one of his pre-ER roles, played the sidekick, Ryan Walker.

So next time, your brilliant idea gets rejected or your dream hits a snag, just remember, “Experts and authorities don’t know everything.”

Another great George story came to me before my talk at the Awakened Expo in Atlanta in May. I’m new at speaking (as I’ve said several times, I call this “My Year of Speaking Dangerously”), and I mentioned my jitters to someone who told me this great story.

When George Clooney first went to Hollywood from Kentucky where he grew up, he stumbled into auditions, like every other newbie, scared and wondering if casting directors would even like him.

Everything changed, he said, when he made this one little tweak. He strode into auditions with the attitude that he was “the answer to that casting director’s dream.”

Tell me in the comment sections below what dream you’re the answer to.

Camp Nashville is a zany scavenger hunt of Music City, complete with prizes. First to snap a photo at all the required (and fun) stops wins $1000 worth of Nashville prizes.

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